Helmholtz and dispersive equations with variable coefficients on exterior domains

Abstract

We prove smoothing estimates in Morrey-Campanato spaces for a Helmholtz equation $$ -Lu+zu=f, \qquad -Lu:=\nabla^{b}(a(x)\nabla^{b}u)-c(x)u, \qquad \nabla^{b}:=\nabla+ib(x) $$ with fully variable coefficients, of limited regularity, defined on the exterior of a starshaped compact obstacle in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$, $n\ge3$, with Dirichlet boundary conditions. The principal part of the operator is a long range perturbation of a constant coefficient operator, while the lower order terms have an almost critical decay. We give explicit conditions on the size of the perturbation which prevent trapping. As an application, we prove smoothing estimates for the Schr\"{o}dinger flow $e^{itL}$ and the wave flow $e^{it \sqrt{L}}$ with variable coefficients on exterior domains and Dirichlet boundary conditions.